Health Insurer’s Suggestions a Decent First Step
May 28th, 2009 at 8:57 am By Ted ModrichYesterday, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. released a proposal that they claim would help save the government $540 billion on health care costs over the next ten years.
Among the fifteen suggestions include the following savings (from AP):
- $166 billion by providing skilled nurse practitioners at nursing homes to manage illnesses and prevent avoidable hospitalizations;
- $37 billion by steering patients to physicians rated best on quality, efficiency and cost;
- $13 billion by cutting down on unnecessary use of advanced imaging technologies such as MRIs; physicians would have to receive prior authorization from a radiology benefit manager.
The full proposal can be found here.
The first suggestion seems to be an extension of the health care home concept, which helps those with chronic diseases better manage those diseases, and avoid frequent emergency visits to hospitals, which can drive up costs for everyone. The other two suggestions listed here would continue to cuts costs and make our clinics and hospitals more efficient.
These suggestions were met with some skepticism because they require voluntary actions by patients since the fundamental payment system is not being changed. UnitedHealth Group said its proposals are a side effort to the broader effort among the health care industry’s pledge to President Obama to cut health care costs by $2 trillion in ten years.
Our health care system still needs a tremendous amount of overhauling to provide citizens with less expensive, yet high-quality and efficient care. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to see insurers finally beginning to create proposals that will drive down costs while creating higher-quality care at the same time.
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This article reminds me of the old David Spade T V commercial just say “NO”!
People fear managed healthcare from the Federal Government, yet here is a proposal by a company whose profits rely on calculating fees derived a percentage of users medical expenditures?
When United Health Care’s Fees for services get down to the 3 percent level of Medicare or the rate of management fees at VA Hospitals, then they should talk about savings!
Who should be managing our health care? The business people housed in huge buildings in Eden Prairie and Duluth or primary care medical staff?